To Everything, There Is a Season…

I always start out with the best of intentions. When I say I’m going to do something, I intend to do it. Like a lot of people, sometimes things get pushed to the back burner.

So, back in May, when I said I was going to post everything to Etsy, I was going to FINALLY get this business up and running, I was going to blog more, I fully intended to.  Then…I got a job. A full-time job. It was intense, fast-paced, forty hours a week,  and boy, was it HOT!  (110* F + on a daily basis!) I was exhausted on weekends. I won’t say where I was working or exactly what I was doing, but know this: it was hot, loud…and I went through a month’s worth of migraine medicine in two weeks. I ended up quitting one morning, nearly a month after I started.

Three weeks ago, I started a much nicer, much cooler, less stressful part time job. It will give me enough time to work on my own time to get things up and running. I’ve looked into some resources that I hope will help me get an idea of how to go about getting things done, the right way.

As I sit here on my couch, I realize that everybody has to start somewhere. I understand that there are reasons sometimes that things don’t happen when you want them to, that everything happens when it’s supposed to. It’s very frustrating to attempt to jump-start your dream. I didn’t go to college. I don’t have any artistic training beyond a high school freshman art course (I wish I’d taken art all four years, but I never realized how much I really loved making art until after I’d graduated!) Anything I’ve picked up since then has really been the result of either learning from magazines or experimentation, sometimes, both. But I absolutely LOVE making things that are pretty, or things that express how I’m feeling. I just want to share that with other people, and inspire others the way I’ve been inspired. I’ve fought a lot of roadblocks, and I don’t intend to give in. I WILL succeed.

Quick Update-May 8, 2015

Yesterday was John’s birthday, and we’re celebrating it today with dinner at my parents house. I will *hopefully* post about day one at the MUSC Nurses Week Craft Fair later today.

The gallery has been updated, but my Etsy shop has not. I will post an update here when I have.

A quick note about my Etsy shop and the gallery…

As most of you know, we moved into our own home back in October of last year. Only recently was I able to start producing work again. The craft fair I’m participating in this week is what really spurred me into action again. I haven’t had a chance to post anything in either Etsy or the gallery here on my blog…yet. I have really been looking into resources to help me get my business going. What I am asking of you, my audience and customers, old and new, is to hang with me a bit. If you don’t see anything yet, keep checking! These things will be accomplished within the week.

 

May 5, 2015

It’s the eleventh hour, and I’m moving full speed ahead!

This week is Nurses Week, and MUSC is hosting a craft fair. I will be at the MUSC Library Portico from 11 am-2 pm tomorrow, May 6, and the MUSC ART Mezzanine on Monday, May 11, from 11 am-2 pm. They are also hosting a family field day on Saturday, May 9, from 11 am-2 pm, during which I, along with other artists and crafters, will be selling our work.

I’m doing some last minute work and getting everything ready to go in the morning. If you’re in the area and have a chance, please come by and see what all the great artists and crafters have to offer!

Well, Hello.

Not that you wouldn’t already know, but the path to success is not a straight line. You plan and dream…and then life gets in the way.

It’s been a million years a few months since I posted last. A lot has happened since then. The best news of all is that John and I finally moved into a place of our own! We moved into our house last October and it is good to be on our own. I am grateful though, that my parents were so kind and generous, letting us stay with them for as long as we did. One of the rooms in our home will be my studio…when I get it organized. As for now, I haven’t really had the chance to create since we’ve moved. I have access to some of my materials, but I have boxes of supplies that need to be unpacked and organized.

The rub on the situation is, I’m looking for a job, too. I’m not established enough yet as an artist to make a living doing what I love; that’s something I’m going to have to work hard at. I don’t want to have to work outside my home and studio, but we do what we have to in order to make sure we’re taken care of. I often wonder when I became a responsible adult, because I don’t remember that happening *HAHA* 😀

Anyhow, as soon as is humanly possible, I’m going to get everything organized and start painting and creating again. I have to reevaluate my Etsy shop and determine what needs to be changed. A lot of reading, studying, writing, and thinking is going to go into this.

Migraines suck.

So.

Take everything I said about being organized and throw it out the window. Because I have done none of it. NONE.

As I’ve mentioned before, I get migraine headaches. I was diagnosed with them when I was 10 years old, and have been on and off treatment for them ever since.This is why there has been no posting, no work, nothing. Because recently, my current doctor put me on meds to try and control them. Beta blockers didn’t work for me back when I was first diagnosed, and we found that they still don’t work for me. So I was put on topiramate, and the side effects were…more than I care to handle. On top of that, I never felt like doing any work.

That is a sad and hopeless feeling, to lose interest in something you love so much. And because it did all this…stuff…to me, I came off of it. Weaned myself off.

Tonight, for the first time since I was put on that cursed medicine, I started painting again. Up until now, it’s like the creativity and drive was sucked out of me.

It’s not like I haven’t had ideas this whole time, because I have. I just lacked the want-to. As for the organizing…

…that might have to wait a while. Because things are happening, nothing I can go into right now, but I think I’ll make that my New Year’s……(I hate the word “resolution”, I hate the whole idea of it)…plan of action.

As for now, it’s bedtime.  It’s actually past bedtime…and I should get my rest because I have this thing that’s going around, coughing and junk. Hopefully it passes soon. I’ll work on posting photos of what I’m working on tomorrow. Goodnight!

Prototype.

I spoke of time management in my last post, and how I needed to prioritize in order to get more done, and I think I’ve sorted a few things out.

1> Fridays have been set aside for photographing and posting my new work to Etsy.

2> Saturday mornings will be spent at the library, planning the next week’s work.

I read a few articles on time management and it was recommended that I buy a planner. Everything is written down in there. Work days, P+P (Photograph+Post) Fridays, Library Saturdays, doctors appointments, plans with family and friends.

This is what I have been working on. This was the prototype of an idea for a door hanger that I’d been thinking of for about a month. It took me two weeks, because I kept changing things that I didn’t like about it.  I think it turned out pretty good. once I got all the bugs worked out…

…this took me one day.  I had the pumpkins pre-cut this time, but everything else was done today. I’m glad it didn’t take as long as I thought it would, about 2-3 days. In the coming weeks, I’ll also start making Christmas themed door hangers.

BUT…tomorrow, I take a break!  John and I are going to hang out with our friends Gordon and big Colin (after he gets out of school) and go to the driving range. I’ve never done much more with the game of golf than play miniature golf. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun, although when I get to hang out with Colin it’s always a lot of fun anyway!

We need to talk.

So…I got to thinking, and I realized, I’ve been a bad friend, I’ve abandoned you. I want you to know that I’m very, very sorry.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *    *

Ugh. I’ve gone and done it again. Not as bad this time, I wasn’t gone as long as I was before. Nevertheless, abandoning my blog has been a bad habit and I’m still trying to break it!

I need to sit down and regroup, figure out what’s working for me, what’s not, and what’s holding back. Maybe I should study time management. 

I did take a couple of weeks where my work was kind of lax and sporadic. Trust me, it was necessary.

As of Monday, I was back at full power, working on an idea that involved wire clothes hangers that I get from John’s uniforms. I’m not done with the prototype yet. I keep finding ways to improve it, and my mom is really great for feedback. 

Over the weekend I will (FINALLY!) be posting my newest work to my Etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/sarahchauvinart  …

And by next Wednesday, I hope to show you all what I’ve been working on. I’m very proud of it, and I’ve been working very hard on it.

In the meantime…I’ll be studying that time management and posting more often…stay tuned…

Science confirms ‘Doctor Who-type world, Gallifrey’

Science confirms ‘Doctor Who-type world, Gallifrey’.

 

(Can I just say, as a whovian, how awesome I find this? LOL I’m such a nerd, and proud of it!)

Title loves you like a long-lost cousin.

I am so sorry. I know I said I wasn’t going to go another week without posting. Things got busy. I’m sure you know what that’s like, life gets in the way. Domestic issues on top of work. Plus, I was busy working on a gift for a certain husband, because…

 

Today is mine and John’s anniversary. Two years since we married. It seems like yesterday and years ago all at once. It’s funny to think of how we’ve grown together since then. I wouldn’t have wanted anybody else by my side 🙂

 

This is one of the things I was busy with last week, John’s anniversary present. I can’t take credit for the idea, because I saw it online (and if I knew the artist’s name, I’d give them credit. But it was not included with the picture I saw). I took elements unique to the two of us (like maps of Texas and South Carolina), ripped them up, and used them as the base layer of the plaque, as well as the respective state flags. Then I layered acrylics, watercolors, and oil pastels over those. I photocopied our marriage license, cut up the photocopies, and used that to build the house.  I’m really glad it turned out well, and very happy that John liked it so much!

These are the flowers John sent me ❤ …we went to downtown Charleston today, walked around, and grabbed dinner at a deli. Fantastic she-crab soup, and John said the gyro was pretty good too.

This is also something I was working on very diligently over the last week. I’ve never done such a realistic underwater scene before. It was on my mind to do something like this, and it appears that it’s going to take a while to finish. It’s a lot of work, because some of the detailing is so fine. But I find, that where doing something so…focused…would drive me absolutely nuts elsewhere, I don’t mind doing it when it comes to painting. Besides that, I’m usually half-watching, half-listening to Doctor Who while I’m doing it. If I get stuck on how I think something is supposed to look, I pause what I’m watching and switch over to the photographic example I’ve usually already googled in the next tab on my browser. Then I switch back over, click play, and get back to what I’m doing.

And apparently I’m pretty good at drawing an octopus. I’ve added color to that and attached that to my sea painting. I’ll have to post and updated picture of that sometime in the next few days.

So John and I are going to be celebrating our anniversary into the weekend. I don’t know what we’re going to be doing, since I’m not allowed to ask (he likes to surprise me. Last week he took me to my favorite Filipino restaurant) but hey, I get to spend time with my best friend. I’m happy!